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‘There will be children in Afghanistan living in absolute terror’: How schoolchildren are responding by helping refugees

Raia Florence and her peers at Strathmore and Pittenweem primary schools are helping Afghani refugees.

As she got ready for school, 11-year-old Raia Florence listened on the radio news about the plight of people in Afghanistan.

Realising how lucky she was compared to children fleeing their homes or living under the rule of the Taliban, she decided she had to do something to help.

Raia is now one of thousands of schoolchildren across the country collecting donations for refugees or raising money for aid organisations working in Afghanistan.

And her school Strathmore Primary School, in Forfar, and Pittenweem Primary School, in Fife, are just two of the many local schools where children are learning about and reacting to the crisis.

Strathmore Primary School class P7H with head teacher Jennifer Garnes.

Raia told us how she came up with the idea of working with her classmates to help Afghan children as she prepared for school one morning.

She said: “I was getting my hair done with my mum and we were listening to the news on the radio. It came on about Afghanistan and I thought ‘what could Strathmore do as  a school to help?’

There will be children in Afghanistan right now living in absolute terror.”

Raia Florence, 11

“It made me feel strange because I know how privileged I am that where we live that sort of stuff is never going to happen to us.

“There will be children in Afghanistan right now living in absolute terror.”

Afghan refugees arrive at the Torrejón de Ardoz military base in Madrid.
Afghan refugee families arrive at a Madrid military base. Photo by Diego Radames/SOPA Images/Shutterstock.

She and her classmates in P7H organised a toy, book and games sale, a raffle and a guess-the-teddy’s-birthday competition and raised £700 for Save the Children.

They and the rest of the school have also been learning about events in Afghanistan through BBC Newsround resources.

Raia Florence with proud head teacher Jennifer Garnes.

Head teacher Jennifer Garnes said she was proud of how the pupils responded to what they had heard on the news.

She said: “The children here at Strathmore are very, very caring and this was something they wanted to speak to their teachers about.”

At Pittenweem Primary School pupils are collecting donations of clothes and toys for refugees.

Pittenweem Primary School’s class P3/4/5

Everyday they watch BBC Newsround and reports about Afghanistan spurred class P3/4/5 into action.

They heard of a collection for refugees in nearby Colinsburgh and decided to help by encouraging peers to donate clothes and toys for rehomed Afghan children.

Teacher Sara Cunningham said: “Afghanistan was the big topic in the news when they came back after the holidays and they were all talking about it.

“We didn’t know much about Afghanistan so we learned a bit about the country, how when the Taliban were in power girls weren’t allowed to go to school and how people were having to flee with no personal belongings.

Children created a poster for their collection.

“We found out that Colinsburgh has a drop-off point for refugee children so they wanted to have a collection in school.”

Mrs Cunningham, who is teaching the same children for the second year running, said they were a very caring group of pupils.

She said: “I wasn’t surprised that they wanted to do this. That’s the kind of class they are, always looking out for other people.”